It is no secret that youth sport coaches fill a variety of roles for their athletes. Those roles can vary from day-to-day based on athlete needs. One important distinction at the youth (high school or club) level is that the sport coach must fill roles that would otherwise be occupied by allied professionals at higher competitive levels.

For example, a youth sport coach often tapes an ankle or may serve as the default sport psychology consultant. Additionally, many sport coaches are put in the position of having to design the strength and conditioning portion of athlete training. The remainder of this article will focus on how youth sport coaches at the high school and club level can serve as their own strength and conditioning (S&C) coach in addition to simply being the sport coach. In order to make the article more applicable, examples from a single sport, gymnastics, will be used as a point of reference.